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Living with lung cancer - Introduce yourself & come say hi
Lung Cancer | Last Active: Jan 22 8:18am | Replies (1013)Comment receiving replies
Oh, I thank you for you response, it is incredibly helpful to hear others' experiences. My 3 largest nodules doubled in the past 7 years and doctor says they are not solid. but mostly ground glass and very low grade. He is thinking that the worst that could happen would be a doubling again over the next 7 years but they could also slow. Meantime, we will be doing CT scans every 6-12 months. It is the new way of things, I realize, and I am glad surgeons are more hesitant to chop up parts of women's bodies than they had ben in the past but it is weird to 'live with' cancer...please tell me about your surgery, was it minimally invasive, did they need to remove an entire lobe? ..one reason to do an earlier surgery - for me - is surgeon says i would lose just 1% lung function on two lobes and 3% on a third lobe...how has your recovery been? how is your breathing? Are you relieved?
suraleah
Replies to "Oh, I thank you for you response, it is incredibly helpful to hear others' experiences. My..."
"surgeon says i would lose just 1% lung function on two lobes and 3% on a third lobe…"
Did surgeon say if it would be a wedge resection, or greater part of lobe? And does he do VAT (video assisted thoracic) surgery? And does he do Robotic bronchoscopy?
Also when looking at size, there is a distinction between total size which would include the ground glass portion and any parts solid or part solid vs. how big only the solid or part solid area is. The solid/part solid is what is of consequence.
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I fully agree with the advice to be well informed on all options for a specific issue.
That means understanding that given any nodule under consideration, there are going to be pros and cons to various treatment options.
Surgery option depends on the location of the nodule. It does get rid of the cancer, and it allows tumor analysis. I have multifocal lung cancer and I chose to have surgery twice and do not regret it. I had video assisted thoracic surgery so that is much easier than open chest.
I have also had a round of SBRT (3 sittings) on one nodule. Quick and painless but within 6 weeks I developed radiation induced pneumonitis (one of the risks) and have been on Prednisone for 6+weeks and now tapering off. While my last pulmonary function test was an improvement over the earlier one done at time of full-blown breathing problem - it is not back to where it was 7 months ago.
Always look for experienced specialists, preferably with some kind of "Tumor Board" where different specialists discuss your case and make recommendations, so you are not dependent on one doctor.